Buffalo Sabres vs. New York Rangers Pick & Prediction NOVEMBER 7th 2024

Preview and Prediction

While the New York Rangers are satisfied with securing victories and accumulating points, their irregularities on offense were sufficient for coach Peter Laviolette to make alterations to their forward lines.

Laviolette positioned Mika Zibanejad alongside Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere, while Chris Kreider skated with Vincent Trochek and Reilly Smith. The changes proved successful for the Rangers, who will stick with the same arrangement and strive for a third consecutive win when they face the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.

Laviolette modified his lines after his team was outshot by a combined 87-37 in a 5-3 defeat against the Washington Capitals on October 29th, and a 2-1 home triumph over the Ottawa Senators two nights later.

Zibanejad recorded three assists - his first three-point game of the season - in Sunday's 5-2 victory over the visiting New York Islanders. He assisted on Kreider's short-handed goal, as well as a power play goal and an empty net goal by Panarin, who has registered a point in 10 of New York's first 11 games.

"It felt good," Zibanejad stated. "I thought all the lines were clicking and playing well. It seemed to work today. Everyone played their own game within the lines."

The new alignment also aided the Rangers in producing 40 shots on goal for the third time this season. In those games, they outscored the Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Montreal Canadiens by a combined 18-4.

In addition to the forward lines, the Rangers also reverted back to pairing defensemen Ryan Lindgren and Adam Fox, and K'Andre Miller with Jacob Trouba. Lindgren was sidelined at the start of the season due to injury, but both of New York's top defensive pairs have extensive familiarity, with Fox and Lindgren having played together for 320 games, according to Natural Stat Trick, while Miller and Trouba have been paired for 354 games.

"That was actually the easiest move because there was so much history in the past," Laviolette told reporters this week.

Buffalo has a record of 5-4-1 since opening the season with three consecutive losses, and is coming off one of their better performances. The Sabres were outscored 11-6 in a three-game losing streak before scoring three goals in the third period to secure a 5-1 home win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.

JJ Peterka scored twice on the power play and also assisted on a goal by Tage Thompson to record his third career three-point game. Thompson scored his eighth goal and added an assist on a night when he had 11 shots on goal.

The Sabres tied a season high by scoring five goals for the third time, and had multiple power play goals for the first time, showing slight improvement. Buffalo has gone 5-for-17 on the man advantage in their last five games after going 0-for-22 in their first eight.

Buffalo also secured the win after coach Lindy Ruff benched defensemen Henri Jokiharju and Mattias Samuelsson following lackluster performances in a 2-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday.

"That was a perfect response," Thompson said. "That's what you want to see. That's kind of a textbook game on what we want to play. I think the last couple games we slowed it down a little bit too much maybe, more so just in Detroit (on Saturday)."

The Rangers have a record of 12-1-3 in their last 16 meetings with the Sabres.

PREDICTION

Buffalo Sabres

2

4

New York Rangers

Buffalo Sabres vs. New York Rangers Recap JAN 3TH 2015